Central China

Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Shaanxi and Shanxi Provinces
Chengdu - Panda Capital For tourists, Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, is most famous for being home to the giant panda breeding research station, which successfully breeds dozens of pandas each year. The pandas are also the city's pride, as is stated by this really giant panda climbing a shopping mall in downtonw Chengdu. Bred Cutie Just one example of a successfully bred panda - this one being one year old. Opppss...ide Down Same panda as on the last picture, but upside down. It's not really clear if the just like to play around or are really a bit clumsy (eventhough, after wathing a bit more, it seems the latter is true, as this guy actualy fell off the tree just a few seconds later :-) Big Pandas Little Brother Not as popular as it's giant brother, the red panda is just as lame when it comes to reproduction and is therefore also being bred in the research station. China Food Experience: Duck Tongues Ordered by mistake when putting together a hot pot order, and fascinated by the looks of them: these are duck tongues... the taste isn't too bad really, but the whole thing mainly consists of gristle and there's not much to eat.
China Classic Snack: Chicken Foot A very poplular snack is the chicken food, neatly wrapped and available in every kiosk. So far I did not dare to try it, but it's on the "must do before leaving China" list. Big Head Carved out of a rockwall, Leshan's Grand buddha ist just another reminder that Chinese have not only fallen to giantism resently, but have along history of doing so.... Big Feet Where there's a big head, there's also big feed.... each toe of this fellow is larger than a human being! Leshan's Grand Buddha From head to toe, the buddha is 71m tall... Emei Shan's Naughty Monkeys Just a stone's throw away from Leshan's Grand Buddha is Mount Emei (Emei Shan), one of the four holy buddhist mountains in China and an absolute Sichuan highlight. It's not only famous for it's spectacular and bizzare landscape, but also for it's cheeky monkeys, which like to steal all sort of things form the tourists. The general rule is: if the monkey wants it, he will get it - so it's better to stow everything safely away (which, of couorse, I did)
My Memories of Emei Shan: Stairs If you climb Emei Shan from the bottom, which I did, you will have to master 2500m of altitude, and it is all stairs! With an average height of 15cm per step this makes around 17'000 steps, so this image will be your most present memory of the mountain. Stairs acutally haunted me in my dreams for a while after this climb :-) Breathtaking! It's not just stairs, it's mostly endless and incredibly steep staiirs. So Emei Shan is truly breathtaking! Sleep of the Just This guy must have one of the hardest jobs in China - whenever a pilgrim is too lazy to climb the stairs himself, this guy and one of his colleagues will carry the person up the stairs in the sedan he is using for a nap right now. No wonders he needs a power nap once in a while in between two assignments... Looking for Trouble Shining Buddha Dusk was already falling when I reached my sleeping place for the night on Emei Shan (Elephand Bathing Pool Monastery). The illuminated buddha inside the prayer hall gave the place this divine atmosphere, it was like arriving in heaven after climbing all these stairs.
Tranquil Buddhist Lookout Next morining, the Elephant Bathing Pool monastery offered great views and an incredibly tranquil atmosphere, backed with the chant of the monks morning prayers a very solemn experience. Emei Shan Finally on the top, Emei Shan offers great views over the steep hills that one has climbed for 10 hours before getting here.... Bullet Train Newest generation bullet train, taking me from Chengdu to Chongqing, the starting poing of the Yangtze river cruise. Hot Pot Feast Chonging is famous for having the hottest "hot pot" (back home we call it "fondue chinoise") of China, so of course this was a mandatory part of the city tour. Dagobert Duck's Palace? With a municipality's population of around 30 million, Chongqing one of the largest agglomerations in China, and it also must be one of the ugliest ones. This riverside section with it's two golden towers was quite impressive, though, and would be an apt home to Dagobert Duck. In reality it houses the Sheraton Hotel. The two black towers beside make it look a bit like heaven and hell.... (what the black towers are, I don't know)
Yangtze Ahoi! Finally it's time to board my home for the next three nights: the Yangtze Gold 7 Cruise boat. On Board Impressions Relaaaxing The cruise boat offered quite a bit of luxury for the worn out backpaker and I was enjoying every minute of it. I spent long hours on my private little balcony, wathing the scenery pass by.... Beat of the Boat It looks as if the coffee was beating to the music of my iPod! In fact, it is just moving to the boat's vibrations... China's Laughing Buddha The "chinese buddha" is always depicted fat and laughing - his smile representing contentment, and his obeseness for generosity. I also had to learn that he actually is not the chinese version of Buddha, but of a chinese follkloric deity named "Budai" (eventhough this is also closely related to chinese buddhism)
Quintessential Chinese: Tourguide's Speaker As if the chinese way of chatting in large groups wouldn't be noisy enough, EACH chinese tourguide carries his own little amplifier and speaker system on him, of course ALWAYS set to full volume. These guys manage to talk without a break for an unlimited amount of time. Combinded with the fact, that tourist places are often flooded by several tourgroups at a time, this leads to an almost unbearable noise in these places. Funnily enough, english speaking tourguides often don't use the speaker, and therefore are - partly to the surrounging noise and partly to the often strong chinese accent - usually hard do impossible to understand. Well, this seems to be the fait of a foreign tourist in china..... Hell of a Noise ... with all the noise around you, this is how you sometimes feel in touristy places ... (it's actually a presentation of a poor soul being sent to hell by some protector gods at this temple) Here be Dragons The dragon is one of the most beloved animals of the Chinese. Other than in the west, it is not thought to be evil, but good hearted and it acts as a protector. Like on this picture, the dragon is often depicted with a pearl (here a black one), which is thought to bring wealth, good luck, and prosperity. There's many elaborate presentations of dragons - I liked this one for it's simplicity and colors. Sunset Over Yangtze River Qutang: First of the Gorges A boat trip through the tree gorges of the Yangtze river is thought to be a unique experience and a "must do" for any visitor of China. After having done the trip I must say, that I don't truly understand this. While my cruise was very pleasent, this was mostly due to the very nice and luxurious boat I was travelling on, and less due to the landscape, which was nice but not really spectacular. The main reason for this is, that the three gorges dam, which was finished a few years ago and lead to a rise of the water level of up to 110m. Here, at the entrance of the first gorge, 200km away from the dam, the water level still is 80m higer than it used to be! One can imagine that the gorge looked a lot more impressive with an additional depth of 80m...
Cruising the Three Gorges Before the Dam The three gorges dam not only creates a lot of clean energy, but also help controlling the water levels. Before the dam, there have been numerous floods, some of them devastaging. Also, cruising through the gorge was not easy, as the water was sometimes very low. That's when these poor guys came into action, pulling boats up the river... Why they were not allowed to wear trousers for this strenuous work, I don't now. Passing a Yangtze River Bridge Amazing Three Little Gorges The most spectacular scenery was not in the three gorges themselfs, but in a side river with the three lesser gorges. There was a lot of pushing, shoving and elbowing in order to get the best place for admiring the scenery :-) Passing the Dam A highlight of the trip was pasing through the five lock chambers of the three gorges dam, which takes around 3 hours. In the Locks Markers showing the level above sea within the locks.
Three Gorges Dam The dam, not being specatcular for it's looks, but for it's facts and figures (look them up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three Gorges Dam) Xi'an City Walls Cycling the Wall Terracotta Army The major attraction in Xi'an and indeed quite impressive... eventhough I have seen so many pictures beforehand, that there was not much room for surprises when I actually saw it. Terracotta Warrior Each of the estimated 8000 soldiers (not all have been unearthed yet) has a unique face - it was the portrait of a real person which, once the terracotta copy was done, was executed...
Terracotta Army The main hall impresses by it's vast size - and the vast amount of visitors squeezing through the walkways Hua Shan Huashan, another holy mountain (this one for the Taoists) is spectacular - or rather: would be spectacular if you were able to properly see it. When I was standing at the foot of the mountain, I could not see any of it. Once reaching the north peak, you could at least spot them through the haze (a.k.a. smog). Sky Ladder As on Emeishan, the whole trek is on sealed pathways or on stairs chiseled out of the rock. Several passages are called "Sky Ladder", because they are so steep (one of the reasons why the mountain has the reputation to be the "most dangerous hike in the world") View from the East Peak Sublime views from the east peak, where I spent the night (hoping for a beautiful sunrise, which didn't happen due to clouds and mist). Plank Walk Besides the natural beatuy of the place, this is the main attraction on the mountain - the "Plank Walk", a via ferrata in a 1000 m vertical wall.
Pingyao I broke the trip to Beijing with a stop in Pingyao, a beautiful town with a well preserved old town, full of little museums and souvenir shops. Pingyao Mansion Many of the old mansions are accessible to the public and have been turned into small museums telling about the live in the village in the past centuries. Brave Enterpreneurs Fire Fighting It seems the city administration of Pingyao has learned from other old towns which have been destroyed by fire - so they placed four bags of fire fighting sand on each window ledge... I doubt it'll actually help much should there really be a fire, but the brown bags on the black sills looked kind of neat. Honesty China does not have a reputation to inform openly and honestly, but there seem to be some exceptions :-)
Pingyao Pingyao is in Shanxi province, which is heavily polluted. This day was supposed to be a sunny day, but it looked foggy anyway, because the air was full of coal dust. By then I was already accustomed to the permanent air pollution, but was suprised that virtually nobody was wearing face masks for protection.